If you haven’t upgraded your walkers yet, don’t do it and save the trade goods. There is no outpost defence which is unbeatable and the high level walkers are just toys and XP suppliers for stromg players. And remember that badges don’t work on outpost defenders, which is a huge advantage for the attackers.

Gear and weapons become more important for Outpost Defense. You want anti-stun/bullet proof gear IMO. Plus, any ranged shooter behind cover would benefit with Sniper Harness. As for ranged weapons, having Incendiary trait is great to light the attackers on fire and neutralize their charge attack assuming they haven't used it yet. At the very least, you want them to walk away with hospital time for their effort.

Be careful with your compound upgrades. I was hoping to jump some levels myself and have been upgrading my compound as quickly as possible. Since your Base/Player Level is a weight they use to match up Outpost raids, you can quickly find yourself in my boat!

My survivors are currently highest level of 21 and my Player Level is 64, I am being matched against level 22-24 defenders and many many of them have level 26 defenders.

I lose or have to flee from most raid attempts, and lose almost every raid against me now.

I asked that the formula for matching could be looked at so people don't get paired up against +5 defenders, but was told that is not something they have time for. I climbed on this boat not knowing what was downstream. I simply advise you to be careful and know what path you are heading down.

I later found this...

I had always been told, in the forums, that influence level was the most important in the matching, I now disagree and say your council level (base/player depending on who says it) matters a heavy amount.

Thanks @wrinkled_bag that's kind of what I was referring to, back in January I'd only been playing a couple months and I though Player level meant the level of your survivors. (Now a few months later, I know player Level = Base/Camp level)

Also when asking around I was told if it seems to difficult, stop gaining prestige and it will even out. Lately I even tried dropping down to the 3k range but I'm still facing level 20+ walkers, so that's why I was trying to stress Player/Base Level is much more relevant than prestige.

Pulling that up from memory is pretty impressive. I'd almost forgotten even having Kaz respond to me about different stages of the game.

I'm happy with my decision to temporarily lock my survivors to lvl 21 with a player level of 62. The highest level that I have had (which is rare) of someone attacking my outpost is lvl 22. Most of the people who attack me are lvl 20-21 and I win 70% of my raids since most cannot handle full walkers at lvl 26.

Once all of my survivors are level 21 with max gear I will then proceed to upgrade my outpost accordingly.